Good evening. Let's all stand
together. We'll sing hymn number 252. 252. Come, every soul by sin oppressed,
there's mercy with the Lord, And He will surely give you rest
by trusting in His word. Only trust Him, only trust Him,
only trust Him now. He will save you, He will save
you, He will save you now. For Jesus shed His precious blood,
rich blessings to bestow. Plunge now into the crimson floodbed,
wash as white as snow. Only trust Him, only trust Him,
only trust Him now. He will save you, He will save
you, He will save you now. Yes, Jesus is the truth, the
way that leads you into rest. Believe in Him without delay
and you are fully blessed. Only trust Him, only trust Him,
only trust Him now. He will save you, He will save
you, He will save you now. Be seated, we'll sing hymn number
334. Be Thou my vision, O Lord of
my heart, Naught be all else to me, save that Thou by day or by night. Waking or sleeping, Thy presence
my light. Be Thou my wisdom and Thou my
true word. Thou ever with me and Thou with
me, Lord. Thou my great Father, I Thy true
Son, Thou in me dwelling and I with Thee, Lord. Riches I need not, nor meant
to be praised, Thou mine inheritance now and always. Thou and Thou only, first in
my heart. I, King of Heaven, my treasure
Thou art. I, King of Heaven, my victory May I reach heaven, yours, O
bright heaven's sun, Heart of my own heart, whatever befall. Still be my vision, O ruler, Moments 12. We'll finish up this
chapter tonight, God willing. Start reading at verse 9 and
read to the end of the chapter. Dick Locker came by here today.
I don't know how many of y'all remember Dick. His wife, Carol,
passed away Saturday night, a little before midnight. He's in bad shape himself. He's walking
with crutches, walking with a crutch. Sad, sad. Verse 9. Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil, cleave
to that which is good. Be kindly affectioned one to
another with brotherly love in honor, preferring one another. Not slothful in business, fervent
in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, patient in
tribulation, continuing instant in prayer. Vividly to the necessity
of saints, given to hospitality. Bless them which persecute you.
Bless and curse not. Rejoice with them that do rejoice,
and weep with them that weep. Be of the same mind, one toward
another. Mind not high things, but condescend
to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits. recompense to no man evil for
evil, provide thanks honest in the sight of all men, if it be
possible, as much as life in you, live peaceably with all
men. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves,
but rather give place unto wrath, for it is written, vengeance
is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore, if thine
enemy hunger feed him, If he thirsts, give him drink, for
in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome
of evil, but overcome evil with good. O our Lord and our God, thank you, Lord. Blessed be your
name for another day you've given us. Another day of grace, another
day of strength, another day, Lord, that you've upheld us and
been faithful to us. Lord, I pray that you would please meet with us,
come among us. Lord, I know we're not worthy
of not one blessing. In all of our blessings you give
us, you give us for Christ's sake. All you do for us, you
did it for Christ's sake. And all we're ever going to have
and what we're ever going to possess is for Christ's sake. So help us to honor his holy
name tonight. Be true to the word of God. And
Lord, save us from our slowfulness, our self-pity, our self-confidence,
our self-love, our self-exaltation. Our ability
to, oh, God, save us from our thinking evil and thinking more
of ourselves than we should. God, save us from these things.
And Lord, I pray that you'd bless the saints gathered out. Bless
those who are listening this evening and watching. God bless
them. They've made us speak for Christ's
sake. Amen. From number 198. 198. Would you be free from the burden
of sin? There's power in the blood, power
in the blood. Would you or evil a victory win? There's wonderful power in the
blood, there is power in the blood. There is power, power, wonder-working
power In the blood of a lamb. There is power, power, wonder-working
power In the precious blood of a lamb. Would you be free from
your passion and pride? There's power in the blood of
a lamb. Come for a cleansing to Calvary's
tide, There's wonderful power in the blood. There is power,
power, wonder-working power, In the blood of the Lamb. There is power, power, wonder-working
power, In the precious blood Would you be wider, much wider
than snow? There's power in the blood, power
in the blood. Sin's stains are lost in its
life-giving glow. There's wonderful power in the
blood. There is power, power, wonder-working
power In the blood of the Lamb. There is power, power, wonder-working
power In the precious blood of the Lamb. Would you do service
for Jesus your King? There's power in the blood, power
in the blood. Would you live daily His praises
to sing? There's wonderful power in the
blood. There is power, power, wonder-working
power in the blood. There is power, power, wonder-working
power In the precious blood of the Lamb. Now God said, when I see the
blood, I'll pass over you. All right, here in Romans 12,
I'm going to try to finish this up. You remember last week I
talked about everything about love. I'm going to continue that
theme tonight. And it's love toward them that
are without and them that are within. You know, love is a principle
all the way through the scriptures. Paul said, though I speak with
the tongues of men and angels and have not charity, I'd just
be a tinkling cymbal. He said, though I have gift of
prophecies and understand all mysteries and have not charity,
it profits me nothing. Give my body to be burned at
the stake, have not charity, it profits nothing. And our Lord
said the first commandment, you know, a lawyer come to him and
ask him, which is the greatest commandment, Master? Our Lord
says, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, all
thy mind, with all thy strength, and shalt love thy neighbor as
thyself. On these two commandments hang
all the law, all the law. And you know, as believers, we
have relationships, social relationships, family relationships. We have
responsibilities, all of us do, you know, to other people, and
not just to believers, but to people we work for and the people
that we deal with publicly. We have responsibilities to them.
And I guess most believers are out in the world much more than
they are with other believers. You spend more time on the job
than you do, you know, you'll spend eight or 10 hours on a
job and then get to come in here and get to spend 45 minutes or
an hour with believers unless you can get together outside
the pulpit. And I want to deal with these
verses as love is shown to those who are outside of Christianity
and those that's in it. Now let's look in verse 14 start
out with verse 14 that we left off verse 13 last year And I
want to continue with that theme of love love Let's love be without
dissimulation in love and how it deals with things He said
bless them which persecute you bless and curse not Bless our
persecutors now I We don't know much about persecution We might
be disliked We might have somebody to tell us that they don't like
us to witness, they don't like us to mention religion, don't
like us to mention Christ, don't like us to mention grace. But
yet, we have people that's uncomfortable with the truth as it is in Christ.
But now persecution, I don't know if we've ever had any of
that. But our Lord Jesus Christ, that's
what he said. Blessed are they that persecuted
for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of God.
And you know, this is a real test of our profession. And it's
not easy. It's not easy. But our Lord is
an example. You know, He's an example. When
He was viled, He reviled not again. And we were persecuted.
He made, you know, He made His enemies to be at peace with Him. Our Lord Jesus Christ, of all
that we know, we persecuted Him, and He was persecuted so bad,
and yet He didn't open His mouth. And this, and our Lord is the
best example. And you know, let me tell you,
you know, and He gave us, gives grace for the occasion when we
have to deal with these kind of things. David was the king
of Israel. He hadn't ascended to his throne
yet, but God had done told him he was the king. Well, he was
with his mighty men. He was going by the mountainside
one day and a fellow named Shimei come out, a son of Saul, one
of Saul's descendants out of his family. And he started throwing
rocks at King David and started cussing him, cursing him, throwing
rocks at him. and cursing him, called him a
bloody man. You kill more people than anybody, you know, and he
called him a bloody man. Well, he had one of his mighty
men said, let me go and take this man's head off of him. Let
me just take off his head. You know, to throw rocks at the
king and curse the king. You know what David said? He
said, let him curse. God called him to curse me. Let
him alone. God called him to curse me. that
led him along. And that's the way our Lord was,
you know. You know, when he was hanging on the cross, the last
word he said before he gave up the ghost was, Father, the first
thing he said from the cross, the first thing he said from
the cross, Father, forgive them, they know not what they do. And
oh my, you know, and Stephen, when they were stoning him to
death, You know what Stephen said as he got down on his knees
and just before he died? He said, Lord, lay not this sin
to their charge. Bless them that persecute you.
Bless them and don't curse them. Bless them to say, God have mercy
on you. God bless you. God keep you.
Oh my, that's a real, real test of our love. And then look what
else it says here in verse 15. Love is really, truly interested
in other people. It really is. Look what he says. Rejoice with them that do rejoice
and weep with them that weep. You know, it's fairly easy. It's
fairly easy to weep with them that weep. When you see people
grieved and they're heavy-hearted, and they're crying, and they
got a heavy heart, and things are not going well, and lost
somebody that they dearly love. It's easy to weep with them that
will grieve, but it's not so easy to rejoice with them that
rejoice. You know, that's the heart. You
know, to weep with them that will grieve, but to win God's
blessing somebody, and they're being prospered of God, it's
hard to rejoice with them. It really is. It's easy to offer
condolences and sometimes, and I know every one of us has been
in this situation, you don't know what to say. You just don't
know what to say. So all you can do is walk up
and hug them and tell them how sorry you are for what they're
having to go through. And oh my, and it's not so simple,
you know, it's not so simple to, Rejoice with him that rejoice
it really isn't now I know believers are too But I tell you what to
see God prosper somebody God bless somebody. It's hard to
leave off selfishness It's hard to leave off the absence of envy
or jealousy at another person's prosperity or another person's
success They see somebody successful, it's kind of hard to rejoice
with them and say, boy, I'm so glad God's blessing you. I'm
glad God's given you some success. Certainly thankful for that.
But that's what it says, weep with them that weep and rejoice
with them that rejoice. And I'll tell you this, a man
said one time, he said, if people will laugh with you, they'll
cry with you. And if people will cry with you,
then when God gives you any kind of success at all, then they'll
rejoice also. When God blesses somebody, when
he does it, since we're members one of another, it's exactly
what's happening to you. You're glad to see God do something
for somebody. You love it, you rejoice in it.
And then look what else love does in verse 16. So, you know, you be of the same
mind of all these things, let love be without simulation, be
kindly affection to one another, rejoicing in hope, distributing
to the saints, blessing them that persecute you and blessing
curse not, rejoice with them that rejoice and weep with them
that weep. And then he says, when it comes
right down to it, you all be of the same mind, one toward
another. You know, be of the same mind
one toward another. What in the world does that mean? That means
when you look at somebody, you be of the same mind they are.
You rejoice with them when they rejoice in whatever they're going
through. Be of the same mind one toward another. You know,
identify with one another. Be in the same attitude and spirit
toward them that persecutes you. That them that weep, that them
that rejoice, be of the same mind, all of you. John Brown,
he's a fellow I've got lots of good books by. Very, very, he's
a Scottish man. And he said, be united in your
affections, in your love. Be united in your sentiments.
Be united in your goals. And the goal is through the glory
of Christ more than anything else. Now listen to me, I'm gonna
say something here and I hope you understand it right. It's
difficult to love every Christian with the same degree of love.
It really is. Because some of them are not
equally lovable as others are. Now you know that. You know,
but we can love them with the same kind of affection, genuine
and sincere. But, you know, it's easy to love
some people and it's hard to love others. I never will forget,
and I think I told you this before, but Bill Carver, I don't know if
you all remember old Bill Carver. He got up to pray one time over
in Cherokee, you know. Tim had him to get up to pray
in his meeting in October. Bill got up and prayed, and oh
my goodness, he had an accent, you know, big old beard. He said,
Lord, that's the way he says it, Lord. Said, bless us tonight, huh? I know Don Fortner's a hard man
to love, but we gotta love him anyway. And Don's sitting in
the service, but he said Don's a hard man to love. And there
is people that, that's, you know, they're not as agreeable and
easygoing as other people are, and not as amiable as they are.
But it's, there's some people that we, that's so easy, easy
to love. And some people's not so easy
to love. Some people's not so grievous, you know, uh, not so,
you know, but we can love them with the same kind of love. Genuine,
it can be genuine, it can be sincere. And then look what it
says again in verse 16. Mind not high things. Oh, love
does not seek unworthy ambitions or worldly ambitions. Mind not
high things. You know, James said it this
way. He says, you know, be not a respecter of persons. You know,
if you see a rich man come in, don't go gravitate toward him. He said, because that make you
a respecter of persons. So you see people that most people
don't count as nothing or nobody. Our little toe, nobody sees it.
But you get that thing, you bust it against something, and you
let it hurt, and it'll hurt you all over. And that's the way
it is, and it's been, mind not high things. Don't look at people
that's got these great ambitions, and you want to be like them.
And what he's doing here is he's calling us to humility. Humility,
don't get way up here, don't mind high things. Oh my goodness,
There's people that, you know, they want the best
and the highest and the best. But don't you do like that. Don't
bind to hot things. And he's calling us to humility
here. Over in the second John, the Johns, little Johns, it says,
Diotrephes loves to have the preeminence. And he says, when
we were going to go over there, he would not let us come. He
would not let certain people come, because he loved to be
the one in charge. He loved such preeminence that
he would refuse. He even told John, I don't want
you coming over here. But John said, when I get there,
he said, I'm going to remember his deeds. He refused to let
people come in the service. He is so high minded, wanted
to love the preeminence, wanted to be everybody's boss and everybody
make all the decisions. And oh my, but look what else
he said here. Condescend to men of lower states. Brother, come down. Come down. You know, you, my son has that
ability. I, you know, and I, he, he was
with the president of Chevrolet last week. The president sat
down in an office with the president of Chevrolet and the chief financial officer.
He meets with people like that all the time, and yet he can
get around my grandsons that work mowing yards and blowing
leaves and make those fellas feel like they're somebody. That's
a gift, and that's what he's saying is. You know, you may
be what, you get around these people that's got all this power
and all this prestige, forget it, forget it. But he said, I'll
tell you what you do. You condescend to those men of
lower state. I remember Brother Henry, when
Elbert Blalock sat over here, Henry would always come in, sit
down beside Elbert, talk to him, loved him. And that's what I'm
talking about. People that nobody else pays
any attention to. People that nobody else looks
at. Nobody else thinks they amount to nothing. Nobody else says,
hi, how you doing? How you getting along? That's the person you seek out.
The person nobody's paying any attention to. Seek them out.
Seek them out. And oh, my. You know, don't be
haughty. Don't be snobbish. Don't be exclusive. Oh, my. But in reality, Whoever
you're with, adjust yourselves to people of every station and
give yourselves and humble yourselves to people. You know what, Jeremiah,
God said to Jeremiah, do you seek great things for yourself?
Jeremiah 45, do you seek great things for yourself? He said,
don't you do it. Don't seek great things for yourself.
Don't seek great things for yourself. He said, oh no, don't you do
that. Don't seek great things for yourself. And oh, look what
our master said. Look over here in Matthew 23.
Matthew 23. Look what our master says over
here. You know, our Lord, he always
told his disciples, he said, you seek out the lowest seat.
Seek out the lowest seat. Now, here's the difference of
what we're talking about. Look in verse five. He said,
there's men, the scribes and Pharisees, they do their works
to be seen of men. They seek high places, you know. Love the uppermost room, it's
feast and the chief seats in the synagogue. You know, we're
going to go up here and look down on everybody else. But oh,
look what our man. They like to be greeted in the
market. Preacher, preacher, preacher.
Oh boy, I tell you what, you're a good one. But oh, our Lord
said, but don't you be called rabbi. Don't you be called rabbi. Don't you be taught teacher.
Don't act like you're somebody. For one is your master, Christ. And listen to this. And all ye
are brethren. And call no man your father upon
the earth, For one is your father which is in heaven. Now he's
not talking about calling you father, father. He's talking
about addressing somebody out, you know, like these Catholics
do, father this and father that. For you have one father. Listen
to this right here now. But he that is greatest among
you. Guess what he gonna do? He gonna
take the Lord's place. Our Lord took the Lord's place
when he, put that towel on and washed his disciples' feet when
he got on his knees. Oh my. And whatever you do, avoid
cliques, avoid cliques. And oh my, then look what else
it says here in verse 16 again. Be not wise. Love, love, you
know, says, oh my, be not wise. And you know, if you love, If
you love the truth and love Christ and love the grace of God, be
not wise in your own conceits. You know, conceits is a disease. You ever been around somebody
conceited? I never will forget. I'm going
to tell you something that happened to me several times when I was
a young man, as a kid. I remember when I was in North
Carolina, first time I went to school. I had on a pair of boots
about three times too big and I had milk cartons in the bottom
of them so because they had holes in them. Go through there and
people make fun of my boots, make fun of my shoes. Then I
went to another school and I wore jeans and everybody in that,
I went to lunch and everybody in that place made fun of me
wearing jeans. It was a kind of a But what I'm saying is,
is that people get so snobbish, so snobbish, that they don't
want to even act like anybody else, but be around nobody but
people like them. A person told me one time, said,
we got to go to a church who's got the same social and economic
structure that we do. So their whole point of going
to church was, we got to go to people that make the same kind
of money we do and run around with the same kind of people
we do. Would that be an awful reason to go to church, attend
a service? Well, if that's the truth, boy,
we're all up the creek anyway. That's a disease. Conceit's a
disease. Can you imagine anything more
despicable than conceit? Oh, most of us, most who are
conceited don't possess the gifts they think they do, that they're
proud of and boast about. And you know what God said? Man's
empty and shallow in and of himself. God said man at his best estate. What is he? Vanity. Vanity. I don't care the best man that's
ever been made. God said he's vanity. Or people
don't like that. Oh, Winston Churchill, you know,
somebody told him, he heard of somebody preaching and calling
people worms. He said, I may be a worm, but I believe I'm
a glowworm. I believe I'm a glowworm. You
know, I ain't gonna be a worm like anybody else. At least I'm
a glowworm. So that tells you what people
think of this, what a conceit. Oh my, we ought to cultivate
God helping us habitually a deep sense of our own worthiness,
of our ignorance. Oh my, I've been studying this
Bible since 1972, two and a half, somewhere in
there, and the Bible's bigger to me than ever. And oh my, what
have we got that God didn't give us? What have we got that we
didn't receive? And oh my. John Newton gave an
illustration about corn. You know, when corn first starts
growing, it's young and then it grows and grows and grows
and grows and grows. Then it gets the ear on the corn.
And then when it starts getting ripe, in the fall of the year,
you know what every one of them ears does that they don't get
off? Every one of them falls over. Every one of them hangs
down. You notice that in October. After
the frost hits it a few times, that ear stands up straight and
you've got to go pull it off. But I tell you what, when that
thing gets full grown and it gets in the fall of the year,
that ear of corn will just go. Start hanging down. The older
we get, that's the way we're going to be. We're hanging down.
God help us to hang down. Hang down. Oh, my. And I'll tell you, love doesn't
take revenge. Look what it says here in verse
17. Love doesn't take revenge. Recompense
no man evil for evil. Oh my. Don't, don't let, recompense
no man evil for evil. Love doesn't take revenge. Everyone
knows that pride Pride is easily, easily offended and wounded.
And it's easy, and as easily as ready to take vengeance. You
know, that's our nature. Our nature is to strike back
when we're struck at. But our master, who when he reviled,
he reviled not again. Oh my. You know, I'll tell you some
things pride won't do. Won't let you say you're sorry. And
when it's offended, when it's hurt, that it won't let you,
it'll be offended you for a long, long time. But if somebody gets
wounded, and they say things to you they'll not say, don't
say it back. Leave it alone, just leave it
alone. Private revenge is contrary to the gospel. Private revenge
is contrary to the gospel. And love seeks to attract, look
what he says here again in verse 17. Provide things honest in
the sight of all men. And what that means is provide
things honest in the sight of everybody, all men, in church,
out of the church, wherever you're at. That means to be honorable,
that means to be beautiful. Be attractive, be attractive
in your life. Be attractive in your life. Be
attractive in your conversation. Be attractive in your light.
Paul said, you know, I think it's in 2 Corinthians 8, 21.
He said there, he says, provide things honest before men and
before the Lord, before both of them, because God really seeks.
And I tell you, that ought to be the easiest thing that we
do. Provide things honest. Lay things out. Lay things out. Be honest. Be honorable. Be a
beautiful person in the sense that you're so honest that people
will be attracted to you. Oh, my, provide things that are
honest in our business dealings, in our conversation, in our conduct
in public. Oh, be that way in our faithfulness
to family and all the people that we meet with in this life.
God helping us to do that. Then look what He says in verse
18. Now you think about this, if
it be possible, if it be possible, as much as the life in you live
peaceably with all men. What He's saying to us, love
keeping the peace. If it's possible, as much as
lies in you and depends upon you, You can keep peace with
others. And you know how you keep peace?
Not meddling in other people's business. Not meddling in other
people's affairs. Not telling people how to live.
Not telling people what they're doing wrong all the time. Don't disturb or meddle in their
affairs. Don't let them disturb you. Don't
let them disturb you. You know, it takes two to fight.
And if you don't fight with them, there won't be no fight. But
I tell you, here's something else. You can't make people.
You cannot make people live at peace with you. So what do you
do if you can't let people live at peace with you? Avoid them.
Just avoid them. And you know what's the chief
offender? The tongue. That's what starts most of these
wars. That's what starts this warfare, this not making peace. And, oh, our Lord said, blessed
are the peacemakers. They're called the children of
God. And look what else it says now in verse 19. Look, love, trust, it's caused
to God Almighty. Dearly beloved. Oh, what a way
he addresses these people, dearly beloved. You're dearly beloved
of me, dearly beloved of God, dearly beloved of one another.
Avenge not yourselves, avenge not yourselves, but rather give
place to wrath. Here's the cause of most unrest,
people taking on themselves to avenge themselves, to get even,
to strike back, that's our nature. Oh my, give place, give place
to wrath. And what does that word give
place to wrath mean? That means to yield to it. It's
just like yielding in traffic. You yield to traffic. He said
you yield to, you yield to it. You let it go right on by you.
You let it go through. Don't resist it. Keep out of
its way. Let it come on by you. Let it
speed by you. That's why it says don't give
place to wrath. Wrath, the wrath of man worketh
not the righteousness of God. And I'll tell you something else.
I've been bad for this, especially years and years ago. I hope I'm
not as bad now as I was. Don't brood over misunderstandings
and keep them warm. That means just keep, as a misunderstanding,
and just keep brooding over it, and brooding over it, and brooding
over it, and well, I ought to tell them this, or I ought to
tell them that, and just brood over it, and keeping it warm. I know every one of y'all been
on a farm. And you know a cow patty, when it gets crusted over
real, real good, if you leave it alone, it'll
just dry up and go away. But people, they're like kids.
They see a fast drive, smack right down in the middle of it. And that's what I'm talking about.
You know, don't brood. The more you bother something,
the worse it gets. Don't brood over misunderstandings. Don't keep them warm. Just let
them die. Let them die. And you know why? Look what it says. For it is
written, Vengeance is mine. I will repay saith the Lord.
Oh my Listen got vengeance is mine. You know what God he's
gonna settle all accounts one of these days. He'll settle every
single account He'll settle them all Our Lord Jesus will and then
look in verse 20 Love returning good for evil Therefore, if thine
enemy hunger, this comes out of Proverbs chapter 25. This
is where this comes from. Proverbs 25. He said, therefore,
if your enemy hunger, give him something to eat. Give him something
to eat. Our Lord feeds us, takes care
of us. We were his enemies. Thine enemy
hunger, feed him. If he's thirst, give him to drink. Give him a drink of water. You
know what you do, what happens when you do that? You're not
treating him like he's an enemy. You're not treating him like
he's somebody that you don't like and you're not getting along.
You're going to treat him like you'd want to be treated. If
he's hungry, feed him. If he's thirsty, give him something
to drink. Give him something to drink. In so doing, that good
will just keep piling up on him, piling up on him, piling up,
piling up on him. And then look what he said in
verse 21, I'll be done. Be not overcome of evil, but
overcome evil with good. You know, this means that love
is going to win the true victory. Be not overcome of evil, but
oh, now overcome evil with good. Evil comes along, you be good.
No matter how evil things are, you be good. This is the true
secret of being a believer of Christianity. Nothing like this
was ever taught, ever taught. You know, the Jew says, and the
law says, curse them, you know, hate them, and find you, you
know, be mean to the enemy. Do all the things you know, that's
what the law says. Kill, kill, kill, be mean, mean,
mean. But our Lord comes along. He
said, this is the way people gonna know you, my disciples.
This is the way that I give you a new commandment. That you love
one another like I've loved you. And that's what, you know, nobody
ever taught this till our Lord come along, till our master come
along. And this is so contrary to the world. So contrary to
the world. The world, they're evil, but
don't let evil men and evil thoughts dictate your course of action.
Don't let them do it, you know. Just don't do it. Don't let evil
men and evil thoughts dictate your course of action. Don't
you be overcome with evil. Don't be overcome with evil.
Don't let hatred and hard feelings get the better of your heart
and soul. Don't let evil, revenge, displace
the divine light that God's given you, the light of forgiveness,
that precious ability to forgive. And I'll tell you what, the one
thing about being a Christian and being a believer, it has
to do with being, being. And if your being's right, your
character's right, and God's gave you the new birth, then
all these other things will fall into place. I got angry, real angry the other
day. I really got angry. And when
I get angry, I get even angrier because I got angry. And I get
sick of myself. I just absolutely get sick. When
I do that, I get sick in my stomach. And I grieve over it. And I asked
for forgiveness. I asked for forgiveness because,
you know, there's no cause, no cause to be angry and take it
out on somebody. There's two reasons for that,
pride and conceit. Wanting to strike out at people. That's all contrary to the grace
of God. I hope that was a blessing to you. You know, being a believer
is not just going to church and shouting hallelujah, is it? When you leave here, that's when
you have to start living your life. Not in here. It's easy
to live it in here. It's easy to sit and say amen.
It's easy to follow the scriptures. But when you go out there, that's
when it's a different story, different story. Our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ's
name. Thank you for your word. Lord, I wish I could explain
it better, love to interpret it better. But, Lord, you're
the interpreter. You're the one that has to explain
it. You're the one that has to make it real and alive and vital
to the heart and mind. And, oh, Lord, we — I pray for
myself that you forgive me of everything that's so unlike you.
I've done all the things that it says not to do in these verses.
But, oh, Lord, please save me from such things. Save me, O
Lord. Save me to bless instead of curse. Save me to love. Come down, not
be high and high-minded. Come down. Oh, God, enable us
to do these things. Don't let evil overcome us, Lord. Give us the grace and the goodness
to overcome evil. Let us be a blessing whoever
we come in contact with, to be nice, to be gracious, to be encouraging,
to be comforting. God bless this word. Please forgive
me and forgive. God bless these saints as they
go their way. We ask these things in our Lord
Jesus' name. There is a name I love to hear. I love to sing its worth. It sounds like music in my ear. The sweetest name on earth. Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love. Oh, I love Jesus because he first
loved me. See you Sunday, God willing.